Hi my daughter has an ear infection for 2 3 months and has tried almost all antibiotics, and by now the doctor recomended going to an ENT for consultation for ear shunts. Does anybody out there have a kid with such a problem to give me some advice.

Hi, I've been there done that once for my daughter and now my son has had a double ear infection for 6 weeks and I went to the ENT and he recommmended putting in tubes, as soon as he said that I was reliefed to know that he won't be suffering any more from the pressure on the eardrum. When I did it for the first time with my daughter I was very nervous about the anethesia and the whole operating room business. BH things went well it, took 15 minutes from when they took her to the OR until I was able to hold her in the recovery room, she was a little groggy. By the next day she was fine, and it was amazing that because of all the fluid she didn't hear, and once the tubes were in she felt lost because all the noise seemed amplified to her. (I did end up getting speech therapy for her)

Now that my son is having tubes placed tomorrow IYH, I am not nervous at all, because I basically know what this is all about and IYH he won't be in pain any more and hopefully behave! :

Thank you much for your thoughts on that topic, b"h my daughter has no problem with her hearing, the main reason for being concerned, is because i think that the doctors are recomending too much to patients, unlike for example 10-12 years ago it was not a common thing.

My son BH has no hearing problems at all (Sometimes when you don't put in the tubes, the child could have some hearing problems due to the fluid in the ear, it is like being underwater.) We took a hearing test and his hearing is good. Basically the tubes help that the child should not be in the awful pain from the pressure of the eardrum and that the fluid should drain either in or out of the ear. The tubes don't prevent ear infections.

I know that what I am going to write here may seem kinda' crazy and trivial in relation to the suffering the children are going through, but I've been wanting to send in the following to all yiddish newspapers, I just never got to it.When my toddler came out of the medical crisis she was born with (she endured two major surgeries), I breathed a sigh of relief....until the ear infections started. Her screams the night before she had a rupture was worse than watching her recover from open heart surgery (at least then she was sedated). At a loss, because I knew that this usually turns into a vicious cycle of treatment and re-occurence and treatment again and ear infection again, and the cycle doesn't break, I asked my African cleaning woman, "Elsa, what do mothers do in your country (some Third World underdeveloped nation) when their children have ear infections? After all, you don't have access to medical professionals all the time and surely not to repeated megadoses of anti-biotics?!" She responded, "Our children don't have ear infections, because in my country we know that most ear infections in children come from the bath water that goes into the ear canal and sits there and collects bacteria, until it turns into a full-blown infection. I was raised knowing that when you take a baby out of the bath you need to blow (with your mouth) very strongly into the baby's ears, in order to burst any water bubbles that are sitting there. That is how the water will drain out and the baby will not become infected." Well,it seemed so trivial and weird, but I was at my wits' end. I started to blow and guess what? MY baby's ear infections stopped! I shared this with a lot of mothers, many of whom I actually met in the pediatrician's waiting room with kids who were having ear infections. Weeks and months later these mothers told me that their children were finally infection-free, after months of suffering. Please don't laugh this off; give it a try - it's the least we can do for our kinderlach.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but......there are 2 different types of ear infections - 1) an external ear infection in the ear canal. Thisis also known as "swimmers ears". Yes, getting thewater out of an ear canal after a bath CAN help preventan ear infection. Yes, I do tell patients with these typeof infections to keep water out of their ears (by placinga cotton ball coated with vaseline outside of the canal).2) A middle ear infection. The infection is in the middle earbehind the ear drum. Keeping water out of an ear canalWOULD NOT have any effect on the middle ear, simply becauseit is behind the ear drum (think of blowing on someones cheeksjust because they have a stuffed nose - the blown air simply can notgo through skin)!

What could help with ear infections are the "otovents" which are a balloonwhich is used to help blow air into the eustacian tubes, avoiding child care, making sure the parents do not smoke (and I feel evendrinking milk from a bottle while lying down). Sometime allergies playa role. For the most part, this is part of normal childhood illenesses, andthe child will grow out of it.

try avoiding giving milk. the theory as to why this works is that the canal is narrower in children and they are laying down when they drink the bottle/nurse,so the bacteria gets stuck there. whether this is the case or not, it helps in many, many children fyi-no big deal to have tubes...and really can help.

My otologist said to blow dry my ear out after showers and baths to prevent otitis externa. I found that most ear pulgs do not create much of a seal. It certianly does not prevent otitis media,. Thanks for your input. Bbj

I know this is not practical for many mothers, but my 3 children were breastfed for at least the first 3 years since they were born and B"H they rarely had ear infections.One of my cousins took her children off milk and many dairy products but ordered a shipment of goat's milk which doesn't have the same harmful impacts as cow's milk (though I can't stand the taste of goat's milk).There was a point in time when I was getting earaches during my mid to late teens until I went to an alternative medicine doctor who told me to refrain from dairy products. I started buying rice milk and soy milk. The best tasting brand of rice milk and soy milk is Imagine Foods Rice Dream or Soy Dream. After a while, my earaches were few and far between.Refua Shlaima!

One of my children's ear infections stopped when she stopped drinking milk. Another child had them even off the dairy but I kept going to a chiropracter because the antibiotics weren't clearing out the fluid and the infections came right back again. His infections became less severe, no high fever anymore, but kept coming back until he slowly outgrew them by age 4. It was a lot of "shlepping" but it was better than having a kid on antibiotics for 4 years straight and the tubesdon't prevent infections.

When my daughter was 9 months old, we put tubes into her ears. This was after she had recurrent ear infections, 3 busted ear drums, and was on one antibiotic after the next. I must say doing the tubes was no big deal at all! She was in the operating room for only 20 minutes, and recovered from anesthesia within a few hours. Now 15 months later, I am happy to say that she has not had even 1 ear infection since the tubes, and hasn't been on any antibiotic. Her tubes are already out. If anybody has any questions, I will be glad to share by great experience!

That is the usual experience. BUT, even though it is a very shortsurgery, it is still a REAL surgery, and care and caution are required.Additionally, you shiould make sure the proper indications for the surgeryare met.

My daughter had terrible earinfections. After a few months she got tubes. While she was on tubes she still got earinfections. On one side the tube didn't fall out and had to be removed by another surgery. NOw she is B"H doing much better. Looking back, I should have first tried everything in the world before going for surgery. At the end giving her Acidophilus was the thing that helped her. Refua shlema to everyone.Belly

True, you want to avoid surgery if you do not need it, but if there is a hearing loss that is present for several months, the child may end up with reduced speech/language skills. Children, especially at an early age need to hear to learn to speak (and just learn in general). You want to maximize speech and language to help maximize them in school/job/life. Every case is different and needs to be considered carefully.

Yes, complications can occur during any sugery and even after (like you had), BUT, complications can (chas vsholom) occur just by crossing the street. When you need to "get to the other side", you take the risk.

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